“In fact, the business plans of the next 10,000 startups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI. This is a big deal, and now it’s here.”
Kevin Kelly, 2014, Wired
Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is able to create new content, such as text, or images, based on its training, and on the prompt that the user provides. In the past several months there has been a literal explosion of ever improving platforms, based on neural networks that have all embraced this approach. While the initial solutions were mostly oriented towards programmers, now there are very user friendly ones available, which are all providing new possibilities to anyone, with zero barriers to entry. Some of the most popular platforms are Dall-E 2, MidJourney and Stable Diffusion for images, GPT-3, ChatGPT and Jasper for text.
The quote at the top of this article is almost 10 years old, but its recommendation is still valid: what happens if we take AI, or more specifically Generative AI, and we add it to Blockchain applications?
The possibility of rapidly generating text around any possible topic, to be tested in terms of the feedback it receives, maybe as a tweet, can help the marketing of any product or service. For crypto projects launching a new token the white paper is a preeminent tool, comparable to the business plans of traditional startups. Could the ability to experiment and iterate with several variants allow projects leveraging Generative AI achieve superior results?
You may have wondered about the images that illustrate this article, and wondered what kind of infographics they really are, with incomprehensible text, and weird faces. In reality they are born from the imagination of an AI, prompted to show a “hyper detailed infographics of the business models of 10000 startups focusing on the use of artificial intelligence in blockchain applications”. It is what one could dream a magazine illustration would be, if we were to squint.
Imagine the power of an NFT or Metaverse platform that incorporates the ability to take advantage of these features by its users. Tailored to be consistent with the particular designs, and world building, but open to the interpretation and imagination of the most passionate and dedicated users.
Blockchain applications can potentially benefit from generative AI in a number of ways:
- Automated contract generation: Generative AI can be used to automate the process of generating contracts for use on a blockchain platform. This can reduce the time and effort required to create and manage contracts, and can help to ensure that the contracts are accurate and legally compliant.
- Improved security: Generative AI can be used to improve the security of blockchain systems by automatically detecting and responding to security threats. For example, generative AI could be used to monitor the blockchain for suspicious activity and automatically initiate countermeasures to prevent attacks.
- Enhanced data privacy: Generative AI can be used to improve the privacy of data stored on a blockchain by automatically encrypting and decrypting sensitive data. This can help to protect the privacy of individuals and organizations that use the blockchain.
- Improved scalability: Generative AI can be used to improve the scalability of blockchain systems by automatically managing and optimizing the network to handle large volumes of transactions. This can help to ensure that the blockchain can support a high level of usage without becoming slow or unresponsive.
Overall, generative AI has the potential to enhance the capabilities of blockchain systems and improve their performance and security.
Why the cursive in the paragraph above? You may have guessed: the text has been produced by a Generative AI.
Generative AI can be immediately understood and used through these examples. But the greatest advantage of Blockchain is the availability of an ever growing set of data, represented by the total number of transactions. There is immense value in not only analyzing this, but also to train neural networks on it. We still have an insufficient understanding of the behavior of blockchain networks, and a growing number of applications depend on them.
What would a Generative AI system trained on blockchain transactions output? How could a project leverage that output in its own business model?
An advanced application of blockchain is the creation of DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations. DAOs naturally assume a new challenge, to design and implement dynamic governance rules, that improve on the top-down and centralized governance that they aim to replace. Generative AI could very well assist in the iterative creation and testing of many more alternative governance models than those that in its absence would be found and tried.
Anywhere you look, the possibilities are endless, and a new wave of projects that merge the advantages of Blockchain and Generative AI are waiting to be discovered!
